Lilac Spring

I'm going to wax lyrical about this image a little. Firstly; spring is not my favourite season but I had been walking past this veritable carpet of colour and felt that if they were going to make such an effort then so too should I

Secondly, it took quite a while and no small amount of tutting before I captured this shot. This is due to the lens. You have to bear in mind that my macro lens is not a zoom. Any movement for framing purposes requires me to actually move. The constant movement, added to the fact that I had to lie down to capture this shot meant wet muddy sleeves and a frustrating amount of time trying to get the purple beyond the foreground interest just right.

That said, I'm pretty pleased. The colour is gentle and I like the framing. What I am uncertain about is whether there is too much foreground and if I should have cropped the leaves that are visible to the left?

Comments (7)

The prose that accompanies this image makes it hard for me to appreciate its colour, framing and composition as when I look on it, all I see is you lying between me and the image, muddy, moody and frustrated. I think I like that mental image more than the soft focus of this shot, though the colours are beautifully gentle, as you say.hjsalts @ 2008-02-17 22:17:55

I think most macro lenses tend to be fixed focal length. The crocuses are blooming in our garden too - making a real effort. I guess I should shoot them too before ALL of them get trampled by our chickens. My feeling is that I would have liked the flower that is far left of frame to have been in focus. It takes my focus anyway, being the most open. It feels like the focus just needs to be pushed a couple of inches. However, I think just cropping the blurry grass in the very foreground, as you suggest, does help a bit. The leaves don't bother me though.CurlyToes @ 2008-02-17 22:21:05

Ah, I'm glad that you have both commented. I'm not sure if hjsalts likes the softness of the image or not.

As for Curlytoes. I caught you out. I agree the furthest left would have perhaps added were it in focus but it was in fact behind the flower to its right. I purposefully left the DoF shallow so as to preserve the lovely our of focus purple to the right. Had I increased the DoF this would have been lost.

Thanks for the comments, it was worth the uncomfortable, damp, muddiness-ness!tobias @ 2008-02-17 22:35:55

I like the soft focus in the background, less so the immediate foreground. And I like the leaves in the front left. They make a nice contrast; the old crisp leaves of winter against the flowers of spring breaking through.hjsalts @ 2008-02-18 09:00:07

I understand the problem with the DoF, Tobias. It's always difficult with macro stuff. However, I stand by the fact that the focus of the image appears to be that one flower, even though when your eyes rest there it's out of focus. Still, I do like the sea of blurry purple to the right of it.CurlyToes @ 2008-02-18 22:24:56

Dof is tricky with macro, but this is a pleasing shot to look at - spring has arrived.emma @ 2008-02-19 12:21:36